From Social Data Mining to Forecasting Socio-Economic Crisis

Socio-economic data mining has a great potential in terms of gaining a better understanding of problems that our economy and society are facing, such as financial instability, shortages of resources, or conflicts. Without large-scale data mining, progress in these areas seems hard or impossible. Therefore, a suitable, distributed data mining infrastructure and research centers should be built in Europe. It also appears appropriate to build a network of Crisis Observatories. They can be imagined as laboratories devoted to the gathering and processing of enormous volumes of data on both natural systems such as the Earth and its ecosystem, as well as on human techno-socio-economic systems, so as to gain early warnings of impending events. Reality mining provides the chance to adapt more quickly and more accurately to changing situations. Further opportunities arise by individually customized services, which however should be provided in a privacy-respecting way. This requires the development of novel ICT (such as a self- organizing Web), but most likely new legal regulations and suitable institutions as well. As long as such regulations are lacking on a world-wide scale, it is in the public interest that scientists explore what can be done with the huge data available. Big data do have the potential to change or even threaten democratic societies. The same applies to sudden and large-scale failures of ICT systems. Therefore, dealing with data must be done with a large degree of responsibility and care. Self-interests of individuals, companies or institutions have limits, where the public interest is affected, and public interest is not a sufficient justification to violate human rights of individuals. Privacy is a high good, as confidentiality is, and damaging it would have serious side effects for society.Comment: 65 pages, 1 figure, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c

Policy Synchronization In Mining Licenses In Forest Areas

The management of licensing system, especially mining permits, is complex because of the inter-sectoral legal linkages. Legislation has been regulated in such a way that certained procedures must be passed by permit applicants to obtain izin pinjam pakai kawasan hutan (IPPKH) and izin USAha pertambangan (IUP). But there is always a gap between regulations and their implementation which makes the licensing system more complex. The aims of the research are (a) to identify mining licensing policies in forest area, (b) to synchronize mining licensing system, and (c) to improve mining licensing system. This study used a content analysis method with a retrospective process evaluation approach. The results showed that IPPKH policy involves 36 types of regulations consisting of 11 Acts, 13 Government Regulations, nine Presidential Regulations, and three Environment and Forestry Ministerial Regulations. The IPPKH process is considered less effective because the applicants must get IUP from the Ministry of ESDM and IPPKH from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry which is managed under One Stop Integrating Permits system, which only handles the administrative issues as mandated by President Regulation No 97/2014. The synchronization of IPPKH policy is necessary to accommodate legislation issued by other technical ministries

What is the Environmental Performance of Firms Overseas?: An Empirical Investigation of the Global Gold Mining Industry

Bayesian stochastic frontier analysis; efficiency; environmental regulations and plant performance; pollution havens; regulatory chill; gold mining.

The enviornmental assessment of a contemporary coal mining system

A contemporary underground coal mine in eastern Kentucky was assessed in order to determine potential off-site and on-site environmental impacts associated with the mining system in the given environmental setting. A 4 section, continuous room and pillor mine plan was developed for an appropriate site in eastern Kentucky. Potential environmental impacts were identified, and mitigation costs determined. The major potential environmental impacts were determined to be: acid water drainage from the mine and refuse site, uneven subsidence of the surface as a result of mining activity, and alteration of ground water aquifers in the subsidence zone. In the specific case examined, the costs of environmental impact mitigation to levels prescribed by regulations would not exceed $1/ton of coal mined, and post mining land values would not be affected

Legal Deposit Web Archives and the Digital Humanities: a Universe of Lost Opportunity?

Legal deposit libraries have archived the web for over a decade. Several nations, supported by legal deposit regu-lations, have introduced comprehensive national domain web crawling, an essential part of the national library re-mit to collect, preserve and make accessible a nation’s intellectual and cultural heritage (Brazier, 2016). Scholars have traditionally been the chief beneficiaries of legal de-posit collections: in the case of web archives, the poten-tial for research extends to contemporary materials, and to Digital Humanities text and data mining approaches. To date, however, little work has evaluated whether legal deposit regulations support computational approaches to research using national web archive data (Brügger, 2012; Hockx-Yu, 2014; Black, 2016). This paper examines the impact of electronic legal deposit (ELD) in the United Kingdom, particularly how the 2013 regulations influence innovative scholarship using the Legal Deposit UK Web Archive. As the first major case study to analyse the implementation of ELD, it will ad-dress the following key research questions:• • Is legal deposit, a concept defined and refined for print materials, the most suitable vehicle for suppor-ting DH research using web archives? • How does the current framing of ELD affect digital in-novation in the UK library sector? • How does the current information ecology, including not for-profit archives, influence the relationship between DH researchers and legal deposit libraries

Coal Mine Safety and Health

[Excerpt] Safety in the coal mining industry is much improved compared to the early decades of the twentieth century, a time when hundreds of miners could lose their lives in a single accident and more than 1,000 fatalities could occur in a single year. Fatal injuries associated with coal mine accidents fell almost continually between 1925 and 2005, when they reached an all-time low of 23. As a result of 12 deaths at West Virginia’s Sago mine and fatalities at other coal mines in 2006, however, the number of fatalities more than doubled to 47. Fatalities declined a year later to 33, which is comparable to levels achieved during the late 1990s. In addition to the well above-average fatal injury rates they face, coal miners suffer from occupationally caused diseases. Prime among them is black lung (coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, CWP), which still claims about 1,000 fatalities annually. Although improved dust control requirements have led to a decrease in the prevalence of CWP, there is recent evidence of advanced cases among miners who began their careers after the stronger standards went into effect in the early 1970s. In addition, disagreement persists over the current respirable dust limits and the degree of compliance with them by mine operators. In the wake of the January 2006 Sago mine accident, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) was criticized for its slow pace of rulemaking earlier in the decade. MSHA standard-setting activity quickened starting later that year, however, after enactment in June of the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (MINER, P.L. 109-236). The MINER act, the first major amendment to federal mine safety law since 1977, emphasized factors thought to have played a role in the Sago disaster (e.g., emergency oxygen supplies, post-accident communication and tracking systems, deployment of rescue teams) and imposed several rulemaking deadlines on MSHA. Accordingly, the agency published final regulations on emergency mine evacuation in December 2006, civil penalties in March 2007, and rescue teams as well as asbestos exposure in February 2008. Some policymakers remain dissatisfied with MSHA’s performance. These sentiments most recently led to House passage, in January 2008, of the Supplemental Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (S-MINER, H.R. 2768). It incorporates language from the Miner Health Enhancement Act (H.R. 2769), such as requiring MSHA to adopt as mandatory exposure limits the voluntary limits (to chemical hazards, for example) recommended by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. S-MINER also requires MSHA to more closely review and monitor operator plans that include retreat mining, the practice used at Utah’s Crandall Canyon mine where six miners and three rescuers lost their lives in 2007. The President has said he will veto S-MINER as passed by the House. In light of rulemaking activity required this year by the MINER act and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 (P.L. 110-161), MSHA asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for assistance. Congress increased MSHA’s appropriation between FY2007 ($302 million) and FY2008 ($334 million). The Administration’s FY2009 budget request for MSHA is $332 million

Haul Truck Tires Recycling

The disposal of large Off-the-Road (OTR) tires is an increasingly important concern. These tires can weigh up to 8,450 pounds with an overall diameter and width of approximately 140.7 inches and 45.1 inches respectively. OTR tires are used for mining vehicles such as haul trucks, wheel loaders, backhoes, graders, and trenchers.[1] These new tires cost between $38,000 and$50,000 each, depending on multiple factors including oil prices and the cyclical nature of the industry. Haul trucks contain six tires per vehicle, and mines replace these tires around every 9-12 months.[2] Statistics regarding discarded OTR tires are not provided by the industry as they are for other types of tires. Thus, it is difficult to approximate the number and location of waste OTR tires not only in individual states, but in the U.S. in general.[3] Currently, Minnesota and Arizona are the only states that place regulations and fees on OTR tires. However, Minnesota is the only state that actually tracks them.[3] The Rubber Manufacturers Association (RMA) roughly estimates that OTR tires account for 1% of scrap tires by number and 15% by weight. When the tires are replaced, the old tires can be discarded with the waste rock in stockpiles at the mining site but more often are landfilled without documentation by an appropriate agency due to lack of federal regulations. Their low density and hollow centers cause them to float to the top of landfills, disrupting the compactness.[4] Also, tires have a heat content 20-40% greater than that of coal which can be very dangerous on the rare occasions that tires catch fire in stockpiles.[5] Furthermore, burning tires release hazardous substances including pyrolytic oil, ash, and smoke, which contain carcinogens, heavy metals, and other toxic compounds.[6] Due to the large size of OTR tires, there are few facilities that can accommodate their recycling.[3] This leads to increased costs in transporting them to such sites. Transportation costs for a tire taken out of service can be up to $1000. In addition to the freight costs, recycling an OTR tire can cost up to$1500 because of their rugged construction compared to passenger tires which cost around 1 to recycle.[3] In response to the waste OTR tire problem, the Ball Hogs from the University of Arkansas have designed a solution that recycles OTR tires by using old tires as liners in ball mills for hard rock mines. Ball mills are large cylindrical vessels consisting of an outer shell, an inside liner and a load of metal balls. A motor turns the ball mill using a transmission system causing the metal balls to move in a cascading motion to grind the material fed into the ball mill. Ball mills require liners that are constructed from materials such as steel or rubber. For a 30 ft long ball mill with a Task #2 5 University of Arkansas 20 ft diameter, a hard rubber liner reinforced with steel can cost 150,000. These liners are replaced at least once a year, creating a substantial upkeep cost for these ball mills. Metal mines in Bolivia are already using tractor tires to line many ball mills. This technique has been effective for over twenty years. The high import costs of new liners and the low cost of labor has led many Bolivian metal processors to use truck and tractor tires as liners in their ball mills. This construction normally occurs on site using tools like handsaws, drills, torches and knives to cut up tires and manpower to mount these tire-made liners onto mills. However, this is not always the case in the U.S. where labor costs are much higher and the mills are generally larger. Many mines in the U.S. do not have the means to fabricate and install these liners on site; therefore, a third-party solution is proposed that will take a mine’s discarded tires and make ball mill liners out of them. The Ball Hogs’ solution provides an environmentally and economically feasible process of increasing the life of OTR tires beyond their typical use. This alternative would utilize the engineering and technology that makes these tires strong enough to hold a 400 ton truck. Mining companies would save yearly an average of $70,000 per ball mill liner replacement, and over 780,000 kg of CO2 per liner. Furthermore, mining companies would earn positive PR, goodwill, and tax breaks. We recommend all mining companies use their OTR tire treads as ball mill liners

Do environmental regulations affect the location decisions of multinational gold mining firms?

This paper empirically analyzes the location decisions of the world's major gold mining …rms using a data set of political, economic, regulatory, infrastructural and investment risk variables observed for a large number of gold producing countries since 1975. The aim of the study is to determine the signi…cance of environmental stringency in forming location decisions while controlling for other potentially important variables that may a¤ect such decisions. Using both a conditional and a mixed logit regression approach, the study …nds consistently strong country location preferences among multinational gold mining …rms. These preferences paint a picture of an industry attracted to countries that are close to their head o¢ ce, provide a business environment characterized by low levels of …nancial risk and high levels of political stability and predictability in mining operations. While mining …rms also appear to be attracted to countries that have a clean environment is less strong and uniformly robust. This preference for a clean environment may itself be reflective of the strong desire to go to countries that are e¢ ciently run, provide clear rules and regulations, and are secure and predictable in their operations. Moreover, while they prefer to go to countries with low levels of corruption, this characteristic seems less important than the desire for security, transparency and stability in government and operations.Taken together, these preferences for a clean, well-run countries may reflect the adoption by mining …rms of a deliberate strategy intended to minimize the risks to their hugely expensive and immobile investments